Amaechi vs Amaechi I

THE most ruthless enemy man has to fight is self. That makes man’s fiercest war against himself. Man is essentially a three-fold creation; body, soul and spirit. The weakest of the chain is the spirit, and I must add, when it isn’t supported by the Holy Spirit. The soul is the most active, always racing and most times, retching and I must add, when not sanctified by the Holy Spirit. The body is a slave to the other two, particularly the soul, which is the centre-piece of the natural man and the most-profound expression of self, is the tongue. The Bible calls it a small but deadly weapon of destruction.

During a sermon on demonic operations and how to identify them, Daddy G.O, while illustrating obsession as a satanic infection, told the story of a woman and a king. The woman was so down with obsession demon that once she called the now-departed Kabiyesi for a chat, the latter would immediately place the receiver on a nearby table after pleasantries and be attending to other matters around him, only to pick it at about one hour after, to say eh eh and return the receiver to the table, without the woman knowing she had been talking to the air, because she would keep on talking endlessly without allowing for any meaningful response from the one at the other end of the call. The pastor also told of another woman who spent time trying to see him for a counselling session but could not make any meaningful point after one hour of talking. Instead of counseling, papa referred her to the deliverance room.

I had sat around Rotimi Amaechi and can testify to his talking “prowess.” Because his emotions rather sit on the edge too often, whether in closet or open, he’s got the predilection to fire and if you fire too often and too much, with a leaking gun, you probably misfire which can backfire. That is the cross Rotimi is carrying now. But it will not be totally correct to say that there are not off-limit for him, meaning that he possibly stepped on his principal’s crotch because he probably had him and his ways to chocking gauge of his throat and just had to blurt. I remember Alhaji Yusuf Ali of the Nation newspaper pressing him so hard at a midnight Abuja parley when he was still a Goodluck Jonathan buddy buddy, on why he was named Rotimi, without any success, despite the boisterous mood of the gathering and his animated response all night. It was an informal gathering just like the assumptive environment he blustered about his principal, party’s national leader, the super minister, the nation and her people who are all his people. The Abuja gathering was a dinner, with choice wines made available for bibbers amongst us, and despite coming in late, following two emergencies at Aso Rock, he looked relaxed like a man enjoying his regulars, which would likely include some of the wines at the get-together.

So, if it appeared from the content of the tapes that he let his guard down because he was having a good time with trusted media friends, so he was at the said dinner where nothing would make him to reveal something as jejune as why he was given a name more associated with the South West, when his ancestry was not native to the Yoruba race. He also did not disparage Jonathan at the meeting, despite the obvious clumsy start to his inherited Presidency.

I hold that Amaechi talked because he wanted to talk, at least, to those he thought would help him hold his thoughts and secret pains until the close of afo/aho (meaning North in Igbo Calendar) market day, when his dolorous assignment of selling a damaged ware, would be over. A snitch ruined his calculation. The lesson here is, never say behind the door to anyone, including your spouse, what you don’t want people outside, to hear.

Despite what the street would call his guyman’s response to the leaked tapes and the aggressive damage control being undertaken by his own, Amaechi knows in his heart of hearts that his once-chummy relations with the president is irretrievable soured, though it is very likely for Buhari, in his usual way, to wear an inscrutable mask over his hurt and disappointment at the intransigence of one of his close aides. But in order not to feed the opposition’s glee, it is almost certain that nothing would happen to Amaechi’s current ministerial and campaign jobs for now. He would however, do well to stay off the president whatever happens after February 16. If Buhari could let off the gloves against Buba Galadima, ki Rotimi sora!

But beyond the perceived political hara-kiri arising from the leaked tapes, Amaechi could be a hero of sort if the nation was not in election mood. One, he took enough interest in his principal to know his true ways. To his credit, he chose not to be a deliberate blind yes-man, to oga’s shortcomings. His only sin here, like others, was not being courageous to tell oga directly his ways weren’t and possibly still not pure. Yoruba will call it, iso inu eku.

For those taking enough interest, President Buhari can be seen to have brightened his dour visage after Trump criticised his languid meanour as lifeless. Now that someone close enough to know, has revealed him as a true representation of the debasing joke that what you don’t want a black man to know, keep inside a book, it would not be surprising if his handlers, in days ahead, organised for him, to be the lead discussant at the launch of an anthology on the economy of cattle-rearing. Truth be told, Amaechi’s kind of faux pas, is needed from time to time, for the governed to have a direct feel of the genuine content and texture of the minds governing them, especially when the leader is gummy-lipped like Buhari.